Muzzy Lane worked closely with a broad range of
colleges and universities to identify opportunities, barriers, and success
factors for mainstream adoption of game-based learning. The company conducted
one-on-one interviews with educators across the country, held focus groups and
interactive design sessions with students from community colleges and adult
education programs, and collected over 1,700 student surveys.

Muzzy Lane utilized the research findings to create
its new core product Author, aDIY authoring platform that allows
instructors to create game-based content and assessment. ML believes
that expanding the number of people who can build educational games shall both
increase students' learning and dramatically reduce the cost of Serious Games
adoption.

“Educational Simulations and Serious Games have
evolved quickly over the last couple of decades, from visionary experiments to
predictable tools used to support the leading strategies of organizations as
diverse as the US Army and global corporations. The research tells us that they
work, and they can teach some things better than any other approach. But as
currently conceptualized, they are a bit too expensive, time consuming to
build, and hard to update to grow beyond a niche. This has prevented
interactive content from becoming integral to all educational media including
personalized learning and more comprehensive assessment."

A forthcoming study from former research
scientist Vadim Polikov and Vanderbilt University titled Substantial Integration of Typical Educational Games into Extended
Curricula, details the benefits of short form game-based learning on
engagement, critical thinking and performance on assessments.

Founded by Vadim Polikov, Legends of Learning launched its online platform of several curriculum-based
education games for middle school earth and space science, life sciences, and
physical science curricula late March. The company was founded after the
results from the research study revealed that short, simple education games
aligned to curriculum standards improve student engagement and academic
performance. The wide-ranging study — more than 1,000 students in seven states
and in schools with differing student bodies, socioeconomic factors and geographical
locations — demonstrated statistically significant success.More than 100 middle schools shall use Legends of Learning in their classrooms. Scores of teachers using
the platform will participate in a second study to demonstrate efficacy and
best practices for blended learning with curricula endgames. The second study
will be conducted by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and
Vanderbilt University.

In her Mind Shift article “Money, Time, and Tactics: Can Games Be Effective in
Schools?”, Tina Barseghian dedicates a section to Short-Form Learning Games.

“Successful short-form games meet an important
and defined market need, whether it is by demonstrating a concept to the whole class
on an interactive white board, or by providing individual students with
practice on a specific concept or skill,” she says. Short-form games include
drill and practice, brief simulations, visualizations, or simulated training
tools, and different types of “game-like” interactive learning objects. These
types of games have the potential to be embedded in personalized learning
environments or adaptive engines that combine data and feedback loops that are
becoming increasingly popular in schools.”

“This
type of game product is starting to gain traction in the K-12 market, due in
part to its alignment to standards and to extensive product lines that cover
many topics within the curriculum or meet an important market need,” Tina
concludes.

In a recent interview to Game and Learning,Stephen Laster, the chief digital officer of
McGraw-Hill Education, said that despite the flood of digital games and tools
into the formal education the evidence of how to use them remains only partial
and made the case for smaller game experiences aimed at reinforcing the
curriculum. For those learning game developers considering building for the
K-12 classroom, publishing giant McGraw Hill had a recommendation: Think
smaller!